force Excel to treat numbers as text

[GottaRun]

Sorry I searched this and no one seems to have a solution. I tried pre-defiming columns as text but it gets over-riden by the paste. Paste Special doesn't do the trick..

paste special as text on tabular data coming from a web site puts most of the data in the first column. It no longer spreads the columns of pasted data into its own excel columns

the tabular data, tab delimited, I want to 'copy&paste' looks like this:

1) OGRODOWICZ MARK M47 6306 BROOKLYN NY 533 446 41 24:00 23:25 7:33 20:58

2) CHAO DUSTIN M35 3738 NEW YORK NY 534 447 155 24:02 23:47 7:40 23:16

The paste should put this data into 2 rows, 12 columns in WYSIWYG format. All data is text.

One problem is Excel insists putting in 24:02:00 rater than 24:02.
The other problem Excel sees that and 7:40 as some kind of date/time.

Is this a lost cause?

[tony h]

if it is pasting into a single column you can use the data..text to columns menu to split it out.
use the options space delimited, the select all columns and state as text then the function will leave all data as text.

hope this helps

[David McRitchie]

Hi ......,

You can probably fix your data by using Data, Text to Columns
format the columns of the spreadsheet as Text beforehand
delimited perhaps TAB, perhaps spaces (treat multiples as one)
format all columns as Text within the Wizard (if I understand you correctly)

If after separation into columns, still messed up, you could start over
with transition options turned on, But don't forget to turn the transition\
options off afterwards, or you will have lots of problems with date and
time entry, as well as use of shortcuts. .

What browser are you copying from, if it is not IE 6 you will probably
have a problem.

What is the source web page, if available to anyone.

What is your version of Excel.

You posted from ExcelForum, so exactly what did you search
ExcelForum, limited to web pages debauched by a "forum"
Google (web search), unfortunately includes contamination by ExcelForum
Google Groups, this is where newsgroup postings appear
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"GottaRun" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Sorry I searched this and no one seems to have a solution. I tried
> pre-defiming columns as text but it gets over-riden by the paste. Paste
> Special doesn't do the trick..
>
> paste special as text on tabular data coming from a web site puts most
> of the data in the first column. It no longer spreads the columns of
> pasted data into its own excel columns
>
> the tabular data, tab delimited, I want to 'copy&paste' looks like
> this:
>
> 1) OGRODOWICZ MARK M47 6306 BROOKLYN NY 533 446 41 24:00 23:25 7:33
> 20:58
>
> 2) CHAO DUSTIN M35 3738 NEW YORK NY 534 447 155 24:02 23:47 7:40 23:16
>
>
> The paste should put this data into 2 rows, 12 columns in WYSIWYG
> format. All data is text.
>
> One problem is Excel insists putting in 24:02:00 rater than 24:02.
> The other problem Excel sees that and 7:40 as some kind of date/time.
>
> Is this a lost cause?
>
>
> --
> GottaRun
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>